Brain plasticity describes your brain’s ability to form new connections and pathways as it continually rewires itself to perform more efficiently.
What this means in a practical sense is you can actually learn to harness your brainpower to gain a leading edge for higher performance in any endeavor. Regardless of your age or life experience, you can create new connections between brain cells.
Your brain is incredibly malleable. Here are three ways you can accelerate brain plasticity:
- 1. Reading – especially books for which you have great interest and passion. Reading improves your brain’s connectivity, attention span, focus, and concentration. Additionally, helping you to structure thoughts into organized sequences and linking cause-and-effect together to engage more deeply into conceptual thinking.
- 2. Visualizing – mentally rehearsing movements in sports, music, and other activities physically change how your neural networks are organized and create additional links across different regions. Connecting the brain and the body stimulates and primes the brain and body for action to move more effectively.
- 3. Practicing – whether it be an athlete who runs or a musician who plays music, repeated practice increases insulation around the neural networks connecting the brain and body. This results in faster processing of cell signals, which enhances the so-called “muscle memory” of specific movements, allowing you to perform more efficiently without thinking about it.
